County moves a step closer to replacing radio system

An EF Johnson radio, which is the current system that Chester County operates on, sits on a desk in the dispatch center as Ed Atkins, director of Chester County’s Department of Emergency Services (left) talks with a dispatcher. Chester County took a step forward in replacing the Emergency Services Radio System, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Staff photos by Tom Kelly IV

WEST CHESTER – Acting to fix an emergency radio system that has been the object of complaints from emergency responders almost from the time it was purchased two decades ago, the Chester County commissioners on Thursday authorized the “go-ahead” of a contract for a new digital system.

If approved next month, the contract, recommended by leaders of the county Department of Emergency Services and supported by an advisory group made up of county first responders, would be with the Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., a leader in the communications industry. It calls for $27.4 million in capital and initial maintenance costs and an additional eight-years of maintenance for $14.7 million, for a total of $42.1 million.

The proposal by Harris, worked out over a period of about one year, was the lowest of three submitted to the county in November 2011. The other two came from Motorola, which proposed a total contract of $50.5 million, and ARINC, which proposed $54.6 million for equipment and maintenance. Officials said the contact could be finalized in early February and work on the system begun immediately thereafter.

One emergency official called the new radio system “a gigantic project, probably the largest ‘non-bricks and mortar’ project in the county in 40 years.”

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Ed Atkins, county Department of Emergency Services director, said the county had been able to negotiate, “very favorable contact terms from each vendor,” but pointed to the Harris proposal as the most cost effective. Initial estimates of the new radio system and maintenance had been around $90 million.

“We are in the happy situation where we are getting more for less, although it is still a significant cost,” Atkins told the commissioners during a presentation on the radio system and the three contract proposals on Tuesday.

“There are just a lot of problems with the (current) system,” said Atkins, who began work on the outlines of a new system in 2009. “The time is right. We need to get a new system installed.”

Chester County operates the emergency voice radio system that provides communication for the county’s police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS) responders. The current system was installed in the early 1990s and its technology is becoming obsolete and the equipment in need of replacement. Atkins said on Tuesday that many pieces of equipment in use are no longer even manufactured.

The system upgrade is desperately needed, the commissioners were told Tuesday. The current analog system continues to have the “dead spots” in coverage throughout the county, a problem that has marked it since it was installed. The Harris contract would mandate 97 percent coverage for the county.

“We have reached the point where a decision must be made to upgrade our communications capability, not only for our citizens, but also for the safety of the first responders – many of them volunteers,” commissioners’ Chairman Ryan Costello said in a statement.

Vice Chairwoman Kathi Cozzone thanked Department of Emergency personnel and the first responders who worked on researching the new radio system. “This group focused on the county’s needs for design and implementation. I thank every member for their advice and dedication.”

“One of our main priorities is to ensure a safe and secure community here in Chester County, “ added Commissioner Terence Farrrel “But we also have a responsibility to protect the fiscal well-being of the county and spend our dollars wisely. This new emergency radio system is vital to the communication needs of our 5,000-plus first responders, and it uses existing infrastructure and a pre-planned modernization scheme to keep it in use for many years to come.”

The new emergency radio system will be a P25 Phase II design, which Atkins said avoids the cost associated with a federally mandated transition from the 700 Mhz band in 2017. The system design includes remote transmitter and receiver sites configured in two fully-linked “cells” within the county; modifications to the microwave transport system that connects the remote sites to the 9-1-1 operations center in the county Government Services Center; replacement 9-1-1 consoles; and field equipment for the emergency responders, including 1,221 vehicle-mounted radios, 2,750 hand-held radios, and 132 control stations for emergency responder station applications.

Brian Sheller, the president of the Chester County Chiefs of Police Association, Ray Stackhouse, leader of the county Fire Chiefs Association, and EMS Council head Keith Johnson issued the following statement in support of the move:

“We are pleased that this day has come and that a new radio system will ensure necessary on-street and in-building communication, and better audio quality, reliability and security,” the statement read. “ We wish to recognize all of our first responders who contributed to the advisory group over the past four years, and we especially thank the citizens of Chester County for placing their trust in us to keep them safe.”

On Tuesday, after Atkins took the commissioners step-by-step through the new system proposals, police, fire, and ambulance officials did their best to impress upon the commissioners the urgency of the system upgrade, and their gratitude at the way the process had been inclusive of their recommendations.

“The need for a new system is quite simply necessary for officers’ safety, which equates to citizens’ safety,” said James McGowan, Downingtown police chief and a member of the advisory group that helped design the new system. The current system “is dangerous,” he said.

‘Dead spots’ in reception and transmission from field radios that had appeared when the current system was installed have increased as the county grew and development expanded. There are too few radio towers to penetrate in some urban areas, and a lack of signal power and technological deficits put responders in jeopardy, the current system’s detractors said.

“It puts the lives of all public safety people at risk,” McGowan said. “It is no one’s fault. It just is what it is. And if we are not safe, then the citizens are not safe. That is why we need a new system. The bottom line is that when they built the (current) system, they went about it the wrong way.”

He said that in the early 1990s, when the county contacted with E.F. Johnson Inc. for the present radio system, it used a consulting engineer to work with the radio company for the system’s design, ignoring the first responder community. When problems occurred after installation, the company pointed out that it had done what the consultant had asked it to do.

In the current process, the county relied on the advisory group for design instructions and used a performance guideline rather than an equipment guideline to guide the companies in their proposals.

McGowan, along with others who spoke at the meeting, praised the county commissioners and administration for allowing input from the emergency responders, each of whom had their own individual circumstances and needs.

“I have seen a lot of stuff come and go in this county, but this is the most inclusive, participatory process I have ever witnessed,” McGowan said, noting that the advisory group had put in “thousands” of hours in getting the right specifications for the new system.

Stackhouse, a Parkesburg firefighter and head of the Chester County Fire Chiefs Association, echoed many of McGowan’s comments, and pointed to a recent situation in which a firefighter had to call for a “May Day” while inside a building. Had the radio he was using hit a ‘dead spot,” he might have not made it out.

“It is literally a matter of life and death,” Stackhouse said.

Leo Scaccia, of the county’s EMS Council, compared the relationship between his fellow first responders and the system bidders to the work done in emergency situations. “The number one thing we need is communication, whether it is in a meeting or on the ground outside in the field,” Scaccia told the commissioners on Tuesday. “If we don’t have that, we fail.” He agreed that the advisory group had worked well with county staff and the bidders in designing a new radio system.

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 125 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Fla., the company has approximately $5.5 billion of annual revenue and about 15,000 employees — including 6,000 engineers and scientists.